Robert Ludlum's "The Janus reprisal" by Jamie Freveletti

Robert Ludlum's "The Janus reprisal", by Jamie Freveletti. It's ninth novel in the 'Covert One' series.This book is published by Grand Central publishing and has 480 pages.

Covert one series is marketed under Robert Ludlum's name but it's written by various authors (six authors so far) and is presumed to be based on his ideas. Covert one is a top secret U.S. agency that fights bad guys and deals mainly with bioweapons threat.  It's operatives are single persons, with no family or friends. Lieutenant Colonel Jon Smith, a scientist and under cover operative is the protagonist.

Jon Smith is attending a conference on virology, in a hotel in The Hague, when he is attacked. The killer can not kill him and dies mysteriously. He was carrying photographs of three persons. An MI6 oprative, Jon Smith and a woman. Mutant variant of a bacteria is stolen from hotel safe. A Pakistani terrorist (Dattar) escapes from custody in The Hague.

Randi Russel (CIA) tries to help Jon but is taken ill by an unknown virus. A CIA agent is shot. Randi thinks that there is a mole in CIA and nobody can be trusted. Jon finds the woman in the photo but she is taken by Dattar's men. Jon is left to his own devices to save himself from a terrorist, rescue the woman in photo and thwart the plot by Dattar to destroy American interest in US by using a WMD. Randy is suspected to be the CIA mole.

Who is the lady in the photo? Is she a civilian or a spy? Are all these events related? Is Dattar behind it all? Is the CIA compromised? Will ultra secret agency 'Covert one' deliver? What is Janus?

There is a change in writing style of this series due to various authors and those who read the series can not relate to it. Jon Smith is shot-at multiple times on US soil, is exposed to mustered gas and bacteria. Does the author want to hint that he is getting old and his reflexes are faltering? Normally Covert One operatives are loners. Here they work as a team. Although the title is Janus Reprisal, Janus is mentioned only twice in the book and has no real role. The name of book could have been anything else.

Readers can recognize the CIA mole but the characters can't. The narration is bland. Even the action sequences do not excite the readers. It is not in the same league as earlier Covert One novels.

An insipid novel. Avoid.